BBC Radio 4 Open Country visited LNBHA - the programme was broadcast on 17th July 2010. Listen again on iPlayer.
Boats Progress
We are currently working on double-ended 18ft North Down Yawls, based on an original boat, the Mary, from the 1890s which was in the workshop until recently. The planking is now finished and it is in the last stages of fitting-out.
The first Lough Neagh working boat left the workshop in November 2007, after about six months work. With 17ft length and 7’3” beam, she is very close to the boat at UFTM, on which we based her (click for A4 plan here). We made the suit of jib and sprit mainsail (Sailplan) with sailmaker Dave Buchanan from Gweek, Cornwall (see Sails). The sail and rigging is scaled up from a range of archive photos, a jib and sprit mainsail.
We have since been working on a 16ft flat-bottomed Lough Neagh Cot, which has been completed in March 2008. It is based on a cot built by Robert Pollock in the 1940s, which we recently acquired and recently restored. Another traditional Lough Neagh working boat, a 20’ clinker sail boat was finished in late 2008.
To take part and learn about traditional boats, simply come down to us on a Thursday
evening (map on the Contact page)!
Historical info, archive images and old postcards are accessible on the Research page.
Trips, Voyages and Films
In May 2007 we took three naomhóga
and two sea kayaks to Doolin to row 6nm over to Inis Oírr
and then on to Inis Maein. The full account of the trip and
images are now on the Trips page.
In 2008, we brought three curachs to Dublin
to welcome the viking ship replica Havhingsten (or Sea Stallion)
into Dublin Port. Meeting her near Sandymount power station,
we rowed and sailed for a short distance alongside her, but
were then out-manouvered by her speed of 4.5 knots in a light
wind...
More info: Havhingsten
Website and on the on the Trips
page.
In 2009 some of us took the boats to the Inishkea Islands, Co. Mayo for a long weekend.
Another 'Slow Travel' [*EcoNote] project, the Turas Cholmcille, is inspired by a historic voyage carried out by 7th
century monks from Teelin, Donegal to Iona in Scotland and
beyond. More info.
Traditional Boats of Ireland
Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh's definitive book on traditional Irish boats and curachs isnow available from most book sellers, packed with archive and new images, texts and plans. Superb in quality and size (29x29cm) and a whopper 3.5kg in weight, it has 658 pages and more than 30 contributors. It is very competitively priced at around €50, giving excellent value for money. A great resource for boat lovers. Publisher: Collins Press, www.collinspress.ie, ISBN 978-1905172-39-9. More info on the Traditional Boats of Ireland website www.tradboats.ie
The Big Boat Build Workshops
The AK Ilen Company runs boat building workshops to restore Conor O'Brien's 1920s ketch Ilen at Hegarty's boat yard in Oldcourt, near Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Under guidance of excellent boatwrights Liam and John (right) Hegarty and Fachtna, participants have a great opportunity to help and restore what will soon be Ireland's largest traditional sailing boat. http://bigboatbuild.com/
Build your own: LNB Construction Plan
An A1 size plan of the traditional 17ft Lough Neagh Boat has just been drawn-up by Holger Lonze. The waterlines are taken from the replica boat in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra while the construction plan also incorporates notes and details from other LN Boats we surveyed as well as findings through the building process. There is sufficient detail to enable building from the plans, particularly in conjunction with the images and description of the building process on this website. The drawing also incorporates a full sailplan, notes on materials, a table of offsets and scantling sections. Click here for an A4 preview of the plan. A full A1 plan (b/w copy on white 100g paper, folded to A4) can be send out to you: please email us via the Contact page.
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Weather
& Tide...
Inshore
Waters Lough Foyle to Carlingford (BBC)
Coastal
Waters Lough Foyle to Carlingford (BBC)
Tides
Timetable Northern Ireland (BBC)
Admirality
Easytide tide predictions for Ireland
General
Information on weather and sailing (BBC) Back
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